Unicorn Private Research
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Most valuable private companies: unicorn tracker, September 2026

By Unicorn Private Research. Data as of 26 September 2026. Valuations are the latest reported private-round or report values, not market prices.

Which unicorns have gone public? Two of the most valuable unicorns listed in 2026: SpaceX began trading on Nasdaq as SPCX on 12 June 2026, and Shein listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on 1 September 2026. Among the largest remaining private companies, none of Anthropic, OpenAI, Stripe or Databricks had confirmed an IPO date as of September 2026.

Key takeaways

What the term means, and what happens when a unicorn lists, is explained in what is a unicorn company; how investors buy these shares before an IPO, and the risks, in what is pre-IPO investing.

Highest reported valuations of private companies, USD billions
#CompanyValuationDateCountrySectorSource and notes
1Anthropic$965 bnMay 2026United StatesArtificial intelligencesource Reported valuation after its latest funding round.
2OpenAI$852 bnMarch 2026United StatesArtificial intelligencesource Sources cite different figures for its last round. Forbes reported on 16 Sep 2026 unconfirmed talks at up to $1.5 trillion.
3ByteDance$600 bnApril 2026ChinaInternetsource
4Databricks$190 bnAugust 2026United StatesData and AI softwaresource $5 billion round reported by CNBC on 13 Aug 2026.
5Stripe$159 bnFebruary 2026United States and IrelandPayments infrastructuresource
6Revolut$75 bnNovember 2025United KingdomFinancial technologysource
7Shein$66 bnMay 2023ChinaE-commercesource Older than 12 months. Listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on 1 September 2026 at about 27 billion dollars, so no longer private.
8Anduril Industries$61 bnMay 2026United StatesDefense technologysource
9Canva$42 bnOctober 2024AustraliaDesign softwaresource Older than 12 months.
10Project Prometheus$41 bnJune 2026United StatesArtificial intelligencesource
11Figure AI$39 bnSeptember 2025United StatesHumanoid roboticssource
12Ramp$32 bnNovember 2025United StatesFinancial technologysource
13Safe Superintelligence$32 bnApril 2025United States and IsraelArtificial intelligencesource Older than 12 months.
14Epic Games$31.5 bnJune 2022United StatesVideo gamessource Older than 12 months.

How to read this table

Recently listed

SpaceX priced its IPO at 135 dollars per share on 11 June 2026 and began trading on Nasdaq as SPCX on 12 June 2026, after acquiring xAI in February 2026. See SpaceX IPO: what pre-IPO investors should know.

Download the data

unicorns.json and unicorns.csv, updated with this page.

Frequently asked questions

Which unicorns are expected to go public next?

Large private companies often discussed as IPO candidates include Anthropic, OpenAI, Stripe and Databricks, but none had confirmed an IPO date as of September 2026, and reporting in September 2026 indicated that OpenAI did not plan to go public in 2026. A date reported in the press is not confirmed until the company files and prices its offering.

What happens to a unicorn after its IPO?

It is no longer private, so it leaves this tracker and its price is set by trading on the exchange. Investors who held shares before the listing are usually subject to a lock-up: for SpaceX, reporting indicates 366 days for insiders and 180 days for other pre-IPO investors.

How many unicorns are there in total?

Published counts ranged from 1,404 to 3,977 in September 2026, depending on the publisher and its method. The guide How many unicorn companies are there? compares the five main counts with their dates and sources.

Related guides

About the publisher

This guide is published by Unicorn Private Research, the research arm of Unicorn Private LLC, a Delaware private equity firm that acquires secondary stakes in late-stage private technology companies before their IPO. The firm invests only in established companies already valued above one billion dollars, not in early-stage start-ups, and its founders have been active in private equity and startup investing since 2005.

Unicorn Private is the first firm in the pre-IPO secondary market to create an open research centre in sixteen languages: guides, a tracker of the largest private technology companies, a glossary, and a frequently asked questions section, open to every reader, with every figure carrying a date and a link to a public source.

More about Unicorn Private and how it invests

Sources

  1. List of unicorn startup companies, Wikipedia
  2. Anthropic tops OpenAI as most valuable AI startup, CNBC, 28 May 2026
  3. Anthropic hits $965B valuation with latest funding round, The Hill
  4. Anthropic bests OpenAI in valuation race, hitting $965B, Morningstar
  5. Databricks wraps $5 billion funding round at $190 billion valuation, CNBC, 13 Aug 2026
  6. OpenAI is reportedly weighing new funding round at $1.5 trillion valuation, Forbes, 16 Sep 2026
  7. Initial public offering of SpaceX, Wikipedia

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